


Civil Discussion

by theweddingofthefoxes



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: AU Verse, Daemons, M/M, alien maiming, short lil drabble, soft kinks fill, the weirdest flirtation, unexpressed feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8843743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theweddingofthefoxes/pseuds/theweddingofthefoxes
Summary: Fill for this Kylux Soft Kinks prompt: His Dark Materials AU where they both are trying to hide their feelings for one another but their daemons are far more honest?





	

It surprised Hux that Ren had such a common animal for a daemon. Someone who considered himself so special and superior, someone who was supposedly so powerful and unique--Vader's own heir--might have had something more unusual for a daemon. A dog seems so....ordinary. 

Sleek black dog with pointed ears. Large, enormous, even. Pointed muzzle. Her fur is short and bristly, and she interrupts her silences to growl at her enemies the way her man does. She is a beast born to stalk and find, who can hear and sense things others cannot, same as her man. Hux supposes she's a fitting creature for him. He has never heard him speak her name. 

"You watch her so often," says Elissir from his shoulder, in the privacy of his quarters. 

"It's easier to know what he's thinking by watching her," Hux answers. "He can't put a mask on her."

Elissir lets out a soft sound and swoops to the perch that sits by his desk. She settled on a form relatively late--Hux was almost fifteen, still small and scrappy and afraid of his father, who thought that the fact that Elissir was still changeable meant something was seriously wrong with his son. But it had been worth the wait. She had settled as a golden eagle, striking and deadly, defying all of his father's predictions of rabbits and mice, and he loved the way he looked stalking the bridge with her on his shoulder. 

She turns her head to the side, as if waiting for him to go on. She of course knows what he is thinking, how he is feeling; she is his very soul made flesh and feathers. She knows how he felt the first time he saw Ren with his mask off, something as bizarre and intimate as, perhaps, pressing his fingers into the fine black fur of Ren's dog, or letting Ren stroke Elissir's feathered head. Elissir would never bite Ren. She knows too well what Hux makes of him, what Hux wants to do to him. Sometimes Hux imagines Ren sharing his bed, Elissir preening on her perch and that black dog at their feet. 

"That's all," he says, curtly. 

"She's lovely," she answers.

"She's fitting."

"And how ought I interpret that, Armitage? Is she fitting because she's lovely?"

Before Hux can answer, there's a request for entry to his quarters, which he grants. Elissir fluffs herself out with satisfaction when Ren and the enormous dog enter, silent and foreboding, but Hux has no time for theatrics. He has a lot of work to do, and the faster he takes care of whatever Ren needs, the faster he can get back to it.

"What's she got?" Hux asks, noticing immediately that Ren's daemon has something in her mouth that could potentially drip onto Hux's fine carpet. Hux does not flinch when he realizes it is some sort of tentacle or alien limb, severed, surely, by Ren's saber. 

"Just a little mouthful of prisoner." Ren laughs, darkly, and it's distorted by the vocoder. The dog wags her tail. "Don't worry, General, no one important."

"Very well." Ren could maim whoever he liked, so long as no one was killed that the First Order could still get any use out of. "What brings you here?"

"There have been reports of treasonous talk among the troopers." Ren scratches his beast between the ears and she leans against his thigh, not letting go of her prize. Hux doesn't have to look at Elissir to know she is watching with keen interest. "I was wondering what your thoughts were on preventing any sort of mutiny."

"A mutiny seems highly unlikely based on the information we currently have. I get the same reports you do, Ren."

"I think it might be beneficial to--"

There's sudden flurry of wings beating, and before either of them can say a word, Elissir has stolen what remains of the dog's prize and returned to her perch, clutching it in her curved beak.

"I think it might be beneficial to take stricter measures," Ren says to Hux, both of them pointedly ignoring their daemons, and the dog is growling, though it sounds more in annoyance than anything else, staring up at the eagle, who sits pretty and out of her reach. "But if you'd like to take responsibility for any future disloyalty, that's fine with me."

Elissir tosses her head, making the tentacle wiggle, and the dog lets out something between a whine and a bark.

"There's no need to take that tone," Hux answers, though in truth, it's hard to know what Ren's tone ever is with that mask on. "If civil discussion is what you want, we can, of course, schedule a private meeting in which to go over the matter."

Elissir hops down from the perch to the arm of Hux's chair, lower, low enough for the dog to take a bite of her if she chooses. She leans forward, offers the bite back to the dog, who snaps it right up. There's a moment of quiet, except for the dog licking her chops. Then she takes a step forward to lick the ruffled feathers below Elissir's neck before making her way back to Ren's side. 

Hux and Ren are both paralyzed, having dared let their daemons do this. Waiting, measuring one another's reactions. Hux's hand is closed tight as Elissir's talons might be, gripping his data pad. 

"Let me know when you can make time to meet," Ren finally says. 

"I will. Was there anything else?"

Elissir turns, bright-eyed, before returning to preening herself. There is no way to know anything Ren is thinking, or that he might say, by looking at that mask of his. Hux lets his gaze drift as subtly as possible to the dog. She is still licking her lips, content. 

"No," Ren says, but they both know that's a lie. "That was all."

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't read The Golden Compass in a really long time but I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of daemons as a kid. I still wonder what mine would be. 
> 
> This is an altered universe where Earth animals are daemons because I said so. 
> 
> Come play with me at [my Tumblr](http://theweddingofthefoxes.tumblr.com/).


End file.
